This was an example of the dubious kind of parapsychology experiment conducted during the period. I'm sure there were true believers, but I think healthy skepticism probably prevented people from pursuing it too seriously, even when positive results were reported.
Ingo Swann said at the talk I attended that the government managers always hated their remote viewing program, so they had to get results right from the start. As soon as the Soviet Union was no more they said ‘thank God we can finally get rid of this awful program.’ The problem was that they liked the idea that there can be “secrets”.
